Editing John IV Laskaris

{{Short description|Emperor of Nicaea from 1258 to 1261}}
{{Infobox monarch
| name           =John IV Doukas Laskaris
| full name      = John Doukas Laskaris<br/>{{lang|grc|Ἰωάννης Δούκας Λάσκαρις}}
| image          =151 - John IV Laskaris (Mutinensis - color).png
| caption        =15th-century portrait of John IV (from a [[Mutinensis gr. 122|15th-century codex]] containing a copy of the ''Extracts of History'' by [[Joannes Zonaras]])
| succession     =[[Emperor of Nicaea]]<br><small>Claimant [[Byzantine Emperor]]</small>
| reign          =16 August 1258 – 25 December 1261
| predecessor    =[[Theodore II Laskaris]]
| successor      =[[Michael VIII Palaiologos]]
| spouse 1       =
| issue          =
| father         =[[Theodore II Laskaris]]
| mother         =[[Elena Asenina of Bulgaria]]
| birth_date     =25 December 1250
| birth_place    =
| death_date     ={{circa}} 1305
| religion       =[[Eastern Orthodoxy]]
| house=[[Laskaris]]/[[Vatatzes]]
| title=[[List of Byzantine Emperors|Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans]]
}}

'''John IV Doukas Laskaris''' (or '''Ducas Lascaris''') ({{langx|el|Ἰωάννης Δούκας Λάσκαρις}}, ''Iōannēs Doukas Láskaris''; December 25, 1250 – {{circa}} 1305) was the fourth emperor of the [[Nicaean Empire]] from August 16, 1258 to December 25, 1261, one of the Greek successor states formed after the [[Sack of Constantinople]] by the Roman Catholics during the [[Fourth Crusade]]. He was the last emperor from the prominent [[Laskarid dynasty]] and the last to only rule Nicaea before the [[Reconquest of Constantinople]] by his successor in 1261.

==Biography==
John was a son of [[Theodore II Laskaris|Theodore II Doukas Laskaris]], the 3rd Emperor of Nicaea, and [[Elena of Bulgaria]]. His maternal grandparents were Emperor [[Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria]] and his second wife [[Anna Maria of Hungary]]. Anna was originally named Mária and was the eldest daughter of [[Andrew II of Hungary]] and [[Gertrude of Merania]].

John IV was only seven years old when he inherited the throne on the death of his father. The young monarch was the last member of the Laskarid dynasty, which had done much to restore the Byzantine Empire. His [[regent]] was originally the bureaucrat [[George Mouzalon]], but Mouzalon was murdered by the nobility, and the nobles' leader Michael Palaiologos [[Usurper|usurped]] the post. Soon, on January 1, 1259, Palaiologos made himself co-emperor as [[Michael VIII Palaiologos|Michael VIII]]. Michael was, in fact, John's second cousin once removed, since they were both descended from Empress [[Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamatera]].
After Michael's conquest of [[Constantinople]] from the [[Latin Empire]] on July 25, 1261, John IV was left behind at [[Nicaea]], and was later [[political mutilation in Byzantine culture|blinded]] on Michael's orders on his eleventh birthday, December 25, 1261.<ref name= "Hackel p. 71">{{harvnb|Hackel|2001|p=71}}</ref> This made him ineligible for the throne, and he was exiled and imprisoned in a fortress in [[Bithynia]]. This action led to the excommunication of Michael VIII Palaiologos by the Patriarch [[Arsenius Autoreianus]], and a later revolt led by a Pseudo-John IV near Nicaea.

John IV spent the remainder of his life as a monk in [[Gebze|Dacibyza]].<ref>Gharipour Mohammad. [https://books.google.com/books?id=XymeBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA147 ''Sacred Precincts: The Religious Architecture of Non-Muslim Communities Across the Islamic World''] Brill, 2014. {{ISBN|9004280227}} p. 147</ref> There is a rescript of [[Charles of Anjou]], dated 9 May 1273, which refers to a report that John escaped from his imprisonment and invites him to come to his court. Further documents attest to his arrival and receiving a pension from the Angevin arch-enemy of Michael Palaiologos. However, this contradicts the evidence of the historians [[George Pachymeres]] and [[Nikephoros Gregoras]], who record that John remained in Dacibyza until long after Michael's death. In his study of Michael VIII's reign, historian Deno John Geanakoplos discusses the contradictory evidence and comes to the conclusion that the documents of Charles of Anjou were intended to serve as propaganda, "to attract the support of the legitimist, pro-Lascarid Greeks of the Byzantine Empire, as well as to sway the anti-Angevin sentiment of the still surviving Greek population of Charles' own territories of southern Italy and Sicily."<ref>Geanakoplos, ''Emperor Michael Palaeologus and the West'' (Harvard University Press, 1959), pp. 217f {{ISBN?}}</ref>

In 1290 John was visited by Michael VIII's son and successor [[Andronikos II Palaiologos]], who sought forgiveness for his father's blinding three decades earlier. As [[Donald Nicol]] notes, "The occasion must have been embarrassing for both parties, but especially for Andronikos who, after all, was the beneficiary of his father's crimes against John Laskaris."<ref>Donald M. Nicol, ''The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261–1453'', second edition (Cambridge: University Press, 1993), p. 99 {{ISBN?}}</ref> The deposed emperor died about 1305 and was eventually recognized as a saint, whose memory was revered in Constantinople in the 14th century.

==Ancestry==
{{ahnentafel
|collapsed=yes |align=center
|boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc;
|boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9;
|boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc;
|boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc;
|boxstyle_5=background-color: #9fe;
|1= 1. '''John IV Laskaris'''
|2= 2. [[Theodore II Laskaris]]
|3= 3. [[Elena of Bulgaria]]
|4= 4. [[John III Doukas Vatatzes]]
|5= 5. [[Irene Laskarina]]
|6= 6. [[Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria]]
|7= 7. [[Anna Maria of Hungary]]
|8= 8. [[Basil Vatatzes]] (?)
|9= 9. ... Angelina (?)
|10= 10. [[Theodore I Laskaris]]
|11= 11. [[Anna Komnene Angelina]]
|12= 12. [[Ivan Asen I of Bulgaria]]
|13= 13. [[Elena-Evgenia, wife of Ivan Asen I|Elena-Evgenia]]
|14= 14. [[Andrew II of Hungary]]
|15= 15. [[Gertrude of Merania]]
}}

{{portal|Byzantine Empire}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*{{Emperor Michael Palaeologus and the West}}
*{{cite book |last=Hackel|first=Sergei | title = The Byzantine saint|edition=2001|year=2001| publisher = [[Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary|St Vladimir's Seminary Press]]| isbn= 0-88141-202-3}} <small>- Total pages: 245 </small>
*{{The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261–1453|edition=Second}}

==Further reading==
*''The [[Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium]]'', Oxford University Press, 1991.

{{s-start}}
{{s-hou|[[Laskaris|Laskarid]] dynasty|25 December|1250|unknown|1305}}
{{s-reg|}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Theodore II Laskaris|Theodore II Doukas Laskaris]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Empire of Nicaea|Emperor of Nicaea]]|years=1258–1261
|regent1=[[Michael VIII Palaiologos]]|years1=1259–1261}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Michael VIII Palaiologos]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Roman Emperors}}{{Portal bar|History|Byzantine Empire|Biography}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Emperors of Nicaea|John 04]]
[[Category:Laskarid dynasty|John 04]]
[[Category:Monarchs deposed as children]]
[[Category:Medieval child monarchs|John 04]]
[[Category:13th-century Byzantine emperors]]
[[Category:14th-century Byzantine people]]
[[Category:1250 births]]
[[Category:1305 deaths]]
[[Category:Greek Christian monks]]
[[Category:Byzantine prisoners and detainees]]
[[Category:Michael VIII Palaiologos]]
[[Category:Sons of Byzantine emperors]]